


But I'm ready (if it happens with you)

by marbythesea



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: Freeform, Ivan joins vatreni at nineteen, Kinda based on things I knew about Ivan but am too lazy to confirm, M/M, Minor mentions of war but they're minor, Rakidrić - Freeform, pretty much inspired by how I flirted as a teen and went to dates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:55:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23627284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marbythesea/pseuds/marbythesea
Summary: The Zadar sun burns Ivan's skin and it makes him want to take Luka to his hometown.Or, alternatively, Ivan is new to the croatian senior football team.
Relationships: Luka Modrić/Ivan Rakitić
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	But I'm ready (if it happens with you)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Restricted Work] by [shipwrecks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipwrecks/pseuds/shipwrecks). Log in to view. 



> -The title of this work is from the song 'Last Dance' by Dua Lipa, though the work may or may be not be inspired on that song.  
> -This is based on shipwrecks' [amazing fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19425487) but theirs is clearly the superior fic of the two!!  
> -I recall reading somewhere Ivan was studying Architecture but he dropped it once he became a pro.  
> -I really ship these two and am a sucker for vatreni I'm sorry. I wanted to fit more characters but this was written pretty much in one night and so it's not beta-ed.  
> -I briefly mention Lukita's life during the croatian war of independence but it's very brief because I really didn't wanna go there.  
> -I have a [tumblr](https://lukaklopp.tumblr.com/)!  
> -Please interact if you liked it!!

Luka smiles and under the Zadar sun his smile glistens as much as his golden hair does. He'd throw fleeting smiles at Ivan sometimes, too, though sporadically. While the training sessions sometimes feel endless and he hasn't been lucky enough to make friends easily with his fellow Croatian teammates, he every so often still manages to strike an after-training conversation with Luka and somehow convince him to stay with him for a few minutes.

While they talk, sometimes they make eye contact. It doesn't last very long, Ivan makes actively sure it stays that way. He fears that if it does, Luka will read into his eyes and accidentally find out how much and _how hard_ Ivan is crushing on him

One day, Ivan decides to stay after training to help the coaches pack up the things. He doesn't live in Croatia, and his family mostly stays in Switzerland for the whole year, so when it's time for him to travel for the international breaks, he does so alone. Right now he is staying with his aunts but no one is expecting him at home soon, and he's got time to kill and a restless heart full of growing pains.

"Hey" Luka calls him. He has already finished showering and changed out of his sporting clothes, Ivan is still picking up orange cones and having a heart attack at the same time. "You got plans for later?"

Ivan almost drops the little pile of cones he has in his hands.

"Uh-" he stutters. "Not really. I mean if you're willing to wait up until I'm done showering... maybe, yeah?"

"Perfect. Once you're ready we'll get going." Luka smiles. "I'll be waiting for you over there" he points to the metal tables near the walking entrance to the training grounds.

He showers in less than 10 minutes, but makes sure he scrubs away the smell of sweat. He brushes his teeth, too; perhaps a little too brashly.

When he comes out Luka is waiting for him. It's now that Ivan takes a pause to appreciate how he looks in casual clothes; Luka's got a white t-shirt on and skinny navy jeans, paired up with dark brown leather sandals.

Luka flashes him a toothy smile once he sees him and Ivan thinks his legs can go limp anytime soon.

They start walking. Luka suggests they walk down to the avenue bordering the coast. After a few minutes they get to the pier and sit down in the concrete to watch the sea and the people nearby.

Ivan wants to start a conversation but is unsure how to do so. Instead, Luka is the one who starts it.

"How old are you, Ivan?" he asks Ivan.

"Nineteen." Ivan replies. "Turned nineteen in March."

"Good. Now I know I can take you out for a drink." He jokes. Ivan knows it's a good intentioned joke, doesn't stop his stomach from twitching. What he doesn't know, though, is whether he's blushing or his face is still hot from the exercise and the shower. 

Se he decides, if his face is red and it's obvious for Luka to see, fuck it, he might as well give it a shot at not being so subtle.

"You could take me anywhere right now." Is his reply, somewhat cheeky. But it's true. For all he knows Luka could take him to the nearest convenience store, buy a single jumbo-sized slurpee and share it with him while they sit in the sidewalk outside -and it'd still be the best date he'd have in a long time.

When Luka takes too long to answer he realizes it probably sounded too... _invested_ , so he tries explaining himself.

"I mean... I pretty much traveled alone for this call-up. I'm staying with an aunt but no one is expecting me to be back home soon. And I'm bored to death. And you definitely should take me out more."

He hates himself so much sometimes.

Luka laughs wholeheartedly.

"Too straightforward, Ivan."

"Luka" Ivan breathes. Zadar's sky is pink and the salty air does wonders for their skin. A sea wind hits their faces, although unharshly, it's enough to make some tourists back away from the sea. But Ivan and Luka remain unmoved. 

Luka's honeyed gaze meets his. Ivan is too nervous, perhaps he sounded too desperate. So he fixes it by sounding even more desperate but less... gay.

"I know you probably don't notice much, Luka; but I'm having a rough time fitting in. Right now you're the only other player I'd call a friend."

It's 5 pm now. 

Another sea-salted breeze ruffles again the hairs in both of their heads; Ivan's hair is short but Luka's is not, his hair ends up in front of his face and some of it in his mouth.

Ivan shifts so he can be sitting closer to Luka, the latter drops his eyes.

"It really shouldn't be a problem for long, though" Luka says. "A lot of us are relatively new to the senior squad, too."

Ivan turns his head away from Luka, opting to look at the scenery in front of him instead. Luka wasn't lying, but it was still wrong. They all knew each other from previous youth call-ups, just like he did swiss players. He felt like an outsider.

"You still knew each other from youth levels. I didn't. It's frustrating sometimes, for me."

"Oh." Luka purses his lips and looks apologetic. "Sorry, that kind of sounded dismissive."

Luka turns his head and gazes at the sea too. There's a short and mildly awkward silence between the two.

"They are still good guys." Luka adds, after a few moments. "Mario, Suba, Charlie and Domo... they'll like you alright. And I know for a fact they are definitely curious about you."

Ivan chuckles.

"Curious enough to not talk to me, I see."

"I'm serious." Luka says. "You're charming. And your game is great. Just like theirs." He pats Ivan in the shoulder. "You'll do just fine in no time. We're going to do things. Go places."

Luka sighs.

Ivan's chest flutters at the thought of playing with this man for a long time. He can only hope.

"Come on, let's grab a beer." Luka stands up and offers Ivan his hand in support.

Twilight hours in Zadar are magical and a whole new experience for him. He's used to cold climates and cities built near mountains, the body of water that watched him grow up being the Rhine, and he doesn't remember much of the last time he went to the sea. A strike of nostalgia pinches him: he remembers the beer in Rheinfelden, how he'd go to the piers and watch the people in there as a child, the way the cold wind would feel against his exposed nose and the rainy days in which the river would rise almost in joy. He remembers family, too. The way his mother, a woman from the Croatian coast, would constantly complain about the Swiss weather, the stories his dad used to tell him and Dejan about falling in love with the Mediterranean sea.

He sees Luka crossing the streets like he's lived in here his whole life, which he probably has (he later finds out that is indeed the case). At this point he is just following him around like a duckling. He wonders if the roles would be reversed like this had they been in his hometown, with Ivan scouring the streets like an expert and Luka behind him, or if Luka would cruise them too looking just as knowledgeable as him.

Ivan wants to find out. Finds himself wanting to take Luka there and show him around, too.

Before he has any more time losing himself into that kind of thoughts, though, Luka turns left around a corner and into a street in which there are several food-related locals (Zadar's coast is full of them though). He makes a beeline for a small, unassuming salmon-pink one.

"Here" he tells Ivan. "The lady running this business, his husband is a brewer. She is lovely. The food in here is superior to anything else, too."

"Great." Ivan walks up and opens the door for Luka.

"Ah, Lukita." A young woman, maybe in her mid-thirties, greets him. Luka walks up to her and hugs her. "It's good to see you, didn't know you came back from Zagreb."

"It's only for this week, Kata. The trainings for the national team were scheduled to be here." He reaches for Ivan and pulls him to his side. "This is my friend, Ivan. I'm showing him around, it's his first time in Zadar."

"Hi."

"Oh, dear. You look flushed like you just slept the whole day under the sun."

Ivan touches his face with his hands. He's indeed warm in the cheeks, but his skin doesn't sting like it would had it been a sunburn.

"Yeah... I'm, uh, not used to sunny places, I guess. I come from Switzerland, my parents are Croats, though."

"I see. Well you can't leave without having a taste of my fish soup, once you go back home and if I like you enough I can give you the recipe, maybe you can surprise your mom and dad."

Ivan thinks about his homesick mom. He wonders what it would take to get the ingredients back in Basel where he lives, but picturing his mom's face would be all worth it.

"I'd love that, actually. My mother would really love it."

Kata smiles.

"Go take a seat, boys. Luka, you know you can grab the beers from the fridge. It's on the house. Also I'll make some _riba na lešo_ so you can take it home for your mom and sisters."

Luka tells Ivan to pick a spot while he grabs the bottles and Ivan figures it'd be fitting to pick a table near the back of the business. 

Once they're sitting, Ivan tries starting up a conversation.

"So Kata is a family friend, yeah?"

"Yeah" Luka smiles. "We were neighbors back when we... stayed at the hotel. With the amount of windows I broke from her family's house I'm lucky she's a family friend and not a family enemy."

"Wait, you lived in a hotel?"

The question was made innocently. But he figures it was a very uncomfortable topic because Luka's face freezes briefly and the does a weird thing with his mouth.

"I lived in a couple hotels, actually." He grimaces lightly. "We were a family of shepherds but became refugees almost right after the war started. Came here. Tried to get our lives back on track."

Ivan is feeling like shit right now. _Of course there was a war and the war affected him, idiot_ was the nagging voice in his mind right now.

"Luka, I'm really sorry. Forget I asked if you want, we could talk about something else."

Luka takes a long chug of his beer. He seems to lose himself into his thoughts for a few seconds.

"It's okay." Luka replies after what feel like ages. "Just... some things still feel like they happened yesterday, is all."

Ivan drinks from his beer bottle wanting to die at that moment.

"Tell me about you, though" Luka adds, he smiles at Ivan as he tries changing the subject. "How's Switzerland like? I've never been there."

"Oh." Ivan quickly puts the bottle down. He turns to look at Luka and finds him looking intently at him. The man's eyes are so brown and pretty. Ivan's mind goes blank for a second. He looks away quickly, sets the bottle on the table and clears his throat. "My parents migrated there for work reasons long before I was born, they met in Zurich. I was born and grew up in Rheinfelden, the north of the country, literally in the border with Germany."

"Is it cold there?" Luka asks.

"In winters yeah but right now it isn't that cold." Ivan smiles lightly. "I mean, it's not beach-warm like here but, it's... normal? We don't get past 25 degrees."

"That sounds nice."

"It's quite nice, indeed." Ivan grins. "I love it there. Right now I live in Basel which isn't that far and I go back whenever I can. My dad likes it there, my mom often gets homesick, though. Both were happy when I told them that I wanted to play for Croatia. I'm so happy I could make the switch before I was called up for the senior team."

"Why did you decide to play with us, Ivan?"

Ivan chuckles.

"You're probably going to laugh if I tell you."

Luka slaps Ivan's shoulder kindly.

"Well, you won't know if you don't tell me. Come on, tell me."

Ivan drinks from his bottle and takes a deep breath.

"Hm, it all started last year. Around August we had a friendly with the Croatian u-21's. My parents are not uhh, crazy nationalists or anything, but they always made sure my brother and I knew our Croatian roots, so I grew up knowing I was a Croat and a Swiss. Okay, so we had this friendly against Croatia, and it was mostly a meh game. It was a draw. But, that was the first time I played against any Croatian team. And it felt, well... weird. Like I wasn't meant to be playing, you know, against them. But I also felt awful for not wanting to play for Switzerland during that match."

"Like you didn't want to play for neither team?"

"Yeah, kind of. But almost immediately it became obvious to me that I really wanted to play for Croatia. So I talked to my parents. And we talked to the Switzerland coach and the Swiss Association. And then we called a scout for Croatia that had previously contacted me, some years ago."

"And then?"

Ivan at Luka, who's now got his head propped up between his hands and is watching Ivan. They catch each other's eyes and after a brief moment (which to Ivan feels like minutes) they both look down and smile. He smiles wholeheartedly again.

"Uh, well. I think I was very nervous that the Croatia coach would call me. With Switzerland I learned that I almost had a secured spot with the big team, because they told me that when I let them know I wanted to play for Croatia." He pauses, takes a bite from the appetizer that Kata magically had placed in the table for them without him noticing. "And before that I had already known that there were a lot of promising players for Croatia our age, so I was already questioning whether or not it had been the right choice. That is, until I got my first call-up earlier this year. It completely clashed with my uni plans but I couldn't care less. I was benched the whole time of course but, yeah, I was so happy the coach even considered me."

Luka looks surprised.

"Oh, you go to school still? Wow. You must be hella busy then."

He kind of was back then. This semester he applied for a sabbatical year because he had just been bought by Basel.

"Yeah, I'm thinking of putting it on hold, though. Honestly I only enrolled because back then my parents and I weren't so sure I'd make it as a pro in football. I'm doing fine now, a big club in Switzerland bought me in June."

"What is your major?"

"Architecture." Ivan chugs down the remainder of beer in his bottle.

"So you're a maths guy. That's cool. I like that kind of people."

Ivan almost chokes. Luka doesn't notice what he's doing to him but Ivan's fine with that. He really doesn't have to know.

"Yah but I like to think I'm an even better footballer. Ha."

"Good. Because you are great at that too."

They smile at each other. Ivan swears he can see the faintest tinge of pink in Luka's cheeks.

"You said we will go places as a team." Ivan asserts. Luka smiles and looks down.

"I'm hopeful we will in a few years, absolutely yes."

Ivan snatches Luka's bottle of beer from the latter's hand. He looks at the older boy dead in the eye.

"I think I'd like to go places with you."

He drinks the remainder of Luka's beer all the while not breaking eye-contact. He can see the guy turning pink. When he's done he hands it back to Luka and both make sure their fingers brush and tangle when he does.

Luka doesn't notice the bottle is empty so he attempts at drinking from it. Once he notices there's no beer left he punches Ivan softly in the arm. He's still blushing. But to be fair, he's been blushing like crazy all afternoon.

"I think I'm down if you promise you won't drink all my stuff next time."

Ivan rests his chin and the weight of his head on his hand. He focuses his attention to Luka's lips, which are very pink and hydrated and have a nice bow. Luka definitely notices Ivan is looking at them because he presses a hand into the corners of his mouth to remove the remnants of food there.

"I can't promise you that." Ivan says after a while. "But I will take you to Rheinfelden and you can have all the beer and drinks you want there. You will have so much to drink you won't notice I kept stealing from you."

He poses his hand on Luka's. Somehow their faces manage to get close and their noses graze each other. Ivan decides to go for it but Luka laughs and turns his head to the side.

They still bump their foreheads together (Luka's face is warm and it makes Ivan feel warm and giddy all over). They gazes lock and Ivan swears Luka's got a look full of excitement in his eyes. 

"Yeah, I think I can do with that. It's a deal." The older boy smiles. "You got very pretty eyes."

Ivan's reply is quick but his voice is breathy, he's already feeling weak and lightheaded:

"I could use them to look at you all day long if you want me to."

Luka lets out a loud, heartfelt laugh and at the same time he intertwines his fingers to Ivan's.

"You already kind of do that."

Their foreheads are still bumping together and he can smell the salt in Luka's skin and almost taste the fruity beer in his breath, his goden hair is glistening under the pink highlights of a setting sun whose lights passes through the restaurant windows. Luka is glowing. Ivan's heart is racing and it feels like it's in his throat.

Before Luka can react, Ivan quickly presses their lips together and they both close their eyes. The kiss is deep and Ivan grips Luka's shoulder tight enough for Luka to rest his hand into Ivan's bicep but not tight enough to hurt him.

"And you can't blame me, can you" he says once they break apart.


End file.
